S.C. Senate panel votes to subpoena Haley staff

COLUMBIA — A state Senate panel voted Friday to force four members of Gov. Nikki Haley’s staff to testify about a water quality permit approved to dredge the Savannah River.

The staff members had twice refused to discuss the matter publicly with lawmakers. They offered to speak privately one-on-one, but senators said such behind-closed-doors discussions do not meet Haley’s mantra of transparency.

A Senate committee looking into the permit voted 9-3 to subpoena Haley’s chief of staff, her attorney and two legislative liaisons. A 25-year-old law gives legislative committees subpoena power, but Friday’s move is believed to be a first. Committee staff members said they did not know of another time when members of the governor’s inner circle had been forced to testify before lawmakers.

Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said Friday afternoon they will comply and testify Thursday. Otherwise, a court could have decided whether they had to speak.

The committee wants to ask the staff members about an agreement the Department of Health and Environmental Control reached with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Georgia last month, just minutes before the DHEC board was to hear an appeal.

The DHEC’s staff initially denied the water quality certification Sept. 30, citing unacceptable harm to fragile freshwater marshes and endangered fish. Board members, all of whom Haley appointed this year, could have chosen not to hear an appeal.

Then the board unanimously approved the agreement Nov. 10, saying little other than thanking staff. On Tuesday, senators criticized board members for the lack of debate and for approving a verbal agreement that wasn’t put on paper and signed until five days later. Board members could not answer specifics on the agreement, repeatedly deferring questions to staff.

The permit approved dredging 35 miles of the shared river channel, allowing supersize ships to reach the port in Savannah. The project still needs other approvals and funding. South Carolina legislators contend the agreement gives Georgia a competitive advantage over Charleston’s port and scuttles plans to develop a shared port in poor, rural Jasper County, which would be 14 miles closer to the Atlantic Ocean.

Environmental groups question whether the system the corps plans to install to pump oxygen into the river would work on such a large scale. Agency staff said the agreement satisfied environmental concerns.

Board chairman Allen Amsler testified Tuesday that Haley asked the board to hear Georgia out, after meeting with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. But all six members of the DHEC board, along with agency leaders, told senators Haley put no pressure on them to water down the environmental requirements or approve the certification. They also said they would still vote the same way.

“All DHEC board members have said under oath that our office did not in any way influence their decision,” Haley said in a statement after the vote. Haley, who also has said her office did not influence the board members, called the subpoenas “a complete waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”

But Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Columbia, said anonymous emails from lower-level agency staff and a conversation that Rep. Boyd Brown, D-Winnsboro, said he had with a Haley staff member seem to contradict the testimony.

In a letter to senators, Brown said the now-subpoenaed staff member bragged to him at a Columbia bar that the DHEC decision was the “best decision we’ve made since we’ve been in office.”

The governor’s spokesman said the conversation never happened.

“You know you have reached a new low when the state Senate issues subpoenas to discuss imaginary conversations between a House member and a staffer in a bar,” Godfrey said.

Sen. John Scott, D-Columbia, said if there’s nothing to hide, “we’ll find that out when we ask the question.”

“If it’s not that big a deal, it should be fairly easy for staff to sit and say we have nothing to hide — five minutes apiece and they’re gone,” he said.

Some Republicans lawmakers worry subpoenas could set a bad precedent for the separation between the legislative and executive branches of government, as Haley has argued.

But Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, who has been a strong Haley ally, decided to support the move because the governor was not being forced to testify.

The governor’s staff has testified before other committees on issues ranging from the budget to voting bills, and this is no different, the Gaffney Republican said.

Peeler said voters tell him legislators need to concentrate on two things: Jobs and quality of life.

“I can’t remember an issue that deals with both as strongly as this,” he said. “This issue trumps everything. It trumps politics.”

His vote was crucial. The motion needed a majority vote of the 17-member committee, though only 12 were present. Broken down by party, five Democrats and four Republicans voted to subpoena.

Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, said legislators need to take their job of government oversight more seriously.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of why the most important decision made by this agency has gone so remiss, and to do so, we need answers,” he said. “We’re not out of bounds in asking the entities of this state to act cooperatively.”